Published on 12, July, 2020
I was reading an article on Zerohedge today,a well known "far right conspiracy nutcase site" which was about the rising prevalence of Autism.
We all know that many people claim that vaccines (or mercury used as an adjuvant in vaccines) cause Autism, (which doesn't work in my case, but what the heck, people claim all sorts of unlikely things to be true nowadays) and that position is made very clearly in the comments sections amongst many others.
Where I agree with the strident people here who ALWAYS pop up to rubbish any ZH link I publish, is that there is a lot of rhetoric, misguided or actually 100% false opinion and information to be read in the comments section, and some of the articles are not much better, indeed.
Where I disagree with those same detractors is that reading them is a useless or even BAD experience. JUST as this forum has ME, Malojian & Juniper from Gallifrey all very different posters with different styles coming from quite clearly diffferent places ALL of us have a "place at the table" (even if it does mean putting up with the likes of me!) and a right to be heard*.
SO that being in mind, I read a lot of them as well as the article..
Sometimes a comment really makes me sit up and think, such as the "Autism can be cured but the cure is being suppressed" comment, not least because the author has put a lot of effort in and has added citations and evidence that can be followed up on... and I did do some of them before I needed to do something else. (It's not just laziness, I am struggliing through interruptions and "new tasks" even during the writing this post, and am now irritated with how long everything takes to get done...
I saw a well dressed person clearly more successful, comfortable, and articulate than me, telling the audience to her you tube video that "yes Autism can be cured". I would rush to believe but for the fact that I've also had a bunch of very similar appearing people telling me that a succession of MRNA injections can make sure I don't catch covid I believe "Safe and Effective" was the psychologcial "baited hook" in that case, so why should I believe her?
BUT nevertheless, the question having been raised in this "fixers" head remains:
COULD Autism be "Curable"??
Not interested in the modern idea of "treatments" which are about as effective as the "servicing" that modern cars get, I'm wondering if it can be CURED like my own suicidal ideation was a few years back.
I don’t think autism is curable or that we should try to cure it. There are differences in brain development, including with respect to developmental timing. There is likely to be a critical period during which any intervention could impact relevant aspects of brain development. There are so many papers on autism and brain development being published recently- it does irritate me- I understand that from a purely basic biology perspective it is interesting to study differences in brain development related to autism (eg how does an autism risk gene affect brain development) but what really gets to me is when they then mention treatment etc. This kind of research will not improves the lives of autistic people. It’s interesting from a basic biology perspective but I am concerned that is not the only reason it is being conducted. It also contributes to misconceptions and negative portrayal of autism- as it is being referred to as a ‘disorder’ and any differences in brain development in autism as ‘defects’. Sorry for the rant. This is something that is on my mind a lot recently- especially as my coworkers keep presenting papers on autism in journal club ….